22 May Do You Need to Offset All of Your Electricity Costs with Solar?

We find that a lot of people are disappointed to learn that solar won’t offset all of their electricity costs.

But they shouldn’t be.

Only a fraction of people have the needed resources to offset 100 percent. Many of our customers fall in the 50-75 percent range. And plenty others only see 20-40 percent of their electricity offset by solar.

Why is this? Most of the time there simply isn’t enough available roof space to power all of the energy needs of the space below it. Or the roof that is available is shaded by trees or blocked by vents or skylights.. And homes in general consume a lot of energy. It could be that you have a lot of energy usage from freezers, electric vehicles, inefficient appliances, or heating or cooling systems. Maybe you haven’t yet switched to LED lights.

One thing we see frequently is what we call the solar effect. When people install a solar PV system, they start paying more attention to their energy usage and carbon footprint. They consider installing more efficient heating and cooling systems like heat pumps. They read their electricity bills and start to pay attention to the energy used, not just the dollar amount. For many, this becomes a fun challenge to do better and reduce consumption so that their solar array can offset more of their usage.

Thankfully, the percentage of energy you offset takes nothing away from the fact that you still produced solar energy. What might only be a 10 percent offset for your home could be a 90 percent offset for another, and the dollar savings are the same for each. In other words, solar saves you money simply by generating electricity. Your actual dollar and energy savings are the same, regardless of how much additional electricity you need to purchase from your utility to keep your lights on, home warm, and beer cold.

The bottom line is that any amount of solar can save you money while giving you clean, free, renewable energy from the sun for decades. With incentive programs, you are essentially getting paid to produce electricity while doing your part to help our society pivot away from fossil fuels. Does it get any better than that?

ABOUT A&R SOLAR

A&R Solar is a leading solar and battery storage installer in the Pacific Northwest. An employee-owned B Corporation, the company is dedicated to craftsmanship and excellent customer service. Read more about us.